By Tetee Gebro and Joyclyn Wea, health and gender correspondents with New Narratives Summary: BENSONVILLE, Montserrado County – Before sunrise, Elaine Duowai prepares lesson notes in a house where electricity is not reliable. By morning, she is walking to Euphemia Barclay Elementary School, where some pupils are already missing from the rows of benches before…
Liberian lawyer Charlyne Brumskine has made history as the first Liberian woman appointed to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice. In this report, she reflects on the significance of her appointment, the court’s role in protecting human rights across West Africa, and her vision for making regional justice more accessible to ordinary citizens. As Liberia…
Liberia’s justice system is failing rape survivors. This investigation follows one woman’s search for justice and reveals how court delays and weak enforcement leave many cases unresolved despite millions in international support. Reported by Tetee Gebro in collaboration with New Narratives This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia…
By Fatu Kamara with New Narratives Summary BROAD STREET, Monrovia – It has been a long day for Joseph. The sun is beginning to set, and the 48-year-old father of three has been trawling the streets of Monrovia since morning, asking for money. On most days, he begs for money to feed his family. Today, he…
“I am continuing the legacy of Liberian women who came before me, those who plaited the mat on which I sit. But I am also a forebearer of those who will come after me. I am simply keeping the seat warm for them and providing a blueprint of how Liberian women must represent our country…
By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives Summary When Charlyne Brumskine learned she had been selected to the coveted post as a judge on the Ecowas Community Court of Justice, her thoughts turned to her late father. Charles Walker Brumskine, the prominent lawyer and four-time presidential candidate who died in 2019, had hoped to…
Similar findings in an investigation in Liberia suggests the practice may be happening across the West Africa By Jennifer Ambolley in collaboration with New Narratives Summary: ● More than seven in 10 women surveyed by The Chronicle in Greater Accra said they take antibiotics every month, in the mistaken belief the drugs “clean” their bodies after menstruation…
People in Victoria’s community told her that her daughter was a dragon. For a time Victoria believed them. Even pastors told her a snake had been sent on her daughter. She tried fasting, praying, spiritual interventions — all of it. ‘Many days, I used to cry over her,’ Victoria said. ‘When you see someone who…
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado County — Victoria remembers the moment when her joy at delivering a baby girl turned to fear. The baby came early, at Victoria’s home. She did not cry. The midwife turned her upside down, trying everything to get a sound out of her….
“We have had so many dialogues,” agriculture entrepreneur Nyamah Dunbar told lawmakers, government officials, and development partners gathered in Monrovia last month for the launch of the consultation findings. Echoing her sisters in the survey, she declared: “I am ready for action.” Joyclyn Wea reports in this social media Video. To read more about this…
The grandmother’s fight for justice exposes the paralysis of Liberia’s judicial system: despite hundreds of reported cases of rape, only two convictions have been secured in six years. Survivors are left without justice, while perpetrators walk free, eroding public trust and leaving families devastated. Tetee Gebro reports in this social media Video. To read more…
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: TODEE DISTRICT, Montserrado County — The first time they came, they brought L$18,000 (US$100). The second time the family brought a lapa, a traditional cloth. When the family, whose 24-year-old son had been accused by multiple witnesses of raping the 57-year-old grandmother in broad daylight in front…
By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives Summary Liberian women said they are tired of explaining their problems. After years of consultations, meetings, and promises, many of the 160 respondents to a new nationwide consultation across Liberia’s 15 counties said the country’s leaders already know what they need: affordable healthcare, better roads, support for…
For most families, the birth of a child is a moment of joy and anticipation. But when complications arise, that joy can quickly turn into tragedy.Across Liberia, patients and health workers say the inability to pay emergency care costs are leading to death and injury for mothers and babies.As Fatu Kamara reports in this collaboration…
A measles outbreak struck Kiangia Town in January, moving silently from home to home before families realized what was happening. With clinics closed or lacking medicine, parents and grandparents relied on traditional remedies like leaves, honey, and alcohol, which experts say offered no protection. One child, Samuel, just four years old, died, while others suffered…
Liberia’s Inter-Religious Council, the umbrella body representing the country’s major Christian and Muslim institutions, is urging lawmakers to pass a stalled health bill that would expand access to abortion in certain cases, breaking with years of opposition to the measure by religious leaders. Supporters say the bill is needed to reduce deaths and injuries from…
By Tetee Gebro and Joyclyn Wea, gender and health correspondents with New Narratives Summary KIANGIA TOWN, Todee District — The measles came to this town in January. Nobody announced it. Nobody warned families here. It moved quietly from home to home, the way measles does — through the air, between children playing; spreading before anyone understood…
By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives Summary: In a major boost to efforts to pass a health bill that would expand access to abortion in Liberia, the Inter-Religious Council, the umbrella body representing the country’s major Christian and Muslim institutions, has called on lawmakers to pass the legislation, breaking with years of religious…
In Liberia, many women in labor face life-threatening delays because hospitals demand upfront payments for emergency procedures. Families are often forced to leave the hospital mid-delivery to raise funds, a desperate situation that has led to mothers dying or suffering severe complications while waiting for care. The practice underscores the devastating impact of poverty and…
By Fatu Kamara with New Narratives Summary: KAKATA, Margibi County — By the time Kolubah Kollie scraped together the last of the money, his daughter was already gravely ill. Zoe Kollie, 29, had been in labor for eighteen hours, some of it endured as she traveled over unpaved roads, when her family finally got her…
Thousands of Liberian women suffer silently from obstetric fistula, a preventable childbirth injury that leaves them leaking urine or feces for years, often in isolation, because maternal health care in Liberia lags decades behind. Despite the fact that 80% of cases could be prevented with timely medical care, limited facilities, poor referral systems, and lack…
